SEDIMENTARY SIMULATION EXPERIMENTS: IN THE PAST, CURRENT STATES, AND DEVELOPING TREND

The first flume experiment was completed by Gilbert (1914), who studied the sedimentary structures formed under a variety of flow conditions .In the 1960s, the investigations on flume laboratory were conducted extensively, the systematic researech report on flume experiments completede by Simons and Richardson evoked wide repercussion in sedimentary field. In the 1970s, the content of flume study was more extensive and more thorough. Moreover, other sedimentary modelling experiments were conducted too, such as experiments on turbidity currents, wind sedimentation tunnel experiments and windstorm sedimentation experiments. These experiments have pushed the theory of sedimentology forward. In the 1980s, sedimentary simulation experiments were transferred from qualitative into quantitative, from small flume expertiments into big basin modelling experiments. As the development of the theory of sedimentology and the necessity that science theory must be transferred into productive forces, attention on sedimentary simulation experiments should be paid to that the conditions of the experimentmust tend to simulate the natural conditions, the content should be transferred from qualitative and small flume study into quantitative and basin sedimentation system modelling, the purpose should be to bring pure theory into practical application. In 1989, Jianghan Petroleum Institute is planning to establish a big Fluvial- Lake System Sedimentation Modelling Laboratory, which will adopt the advanced scientific and technical system of automatic control, automatic test and measure, automatic operation and processing. The main purpose of the laboratory is to predict quantitatively the distribution, size and properties of sandstone body in terrigenous lake basin after it is completed. Moreover, it can provide sedimentologists with a place to go in for basic study of sedimentology.